COGNITION AND EMOTION
0000, 00 (00), 118
Cultural differences in the dialectical and non-dialectical
emotional styles and their implications for health
Yuri Miyamoto and Carol D. Ryff
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Previous cross-cultural studies have repeatedly demonstrated that East Asians are more likely to
show a dialectical emotional style than Americans, but do not distinguish between specific types of
dialectical emotional styles. Using an age diverse sample, we found that compared to Americans,
Japanese are more likely to experience both positive and negative emotions moderately frequently
(i.e., moderate dialectical), but are no more likely to experience them frequently (i.e., high
dialectical). Thus, dialectical emotions prevalent in East Asia may be characterised by a ‘‘middle way’’
rather than by emotional extremes. Furthermore, we explored whether dialectical emotion types are
associated with better health profiles depending on cultural background. Our results show that the
moderate dialectical type is associated with fewer physical symptoms in Japan than in the USA.
Together, these findings show the cultural differences in the experience of balanced positive and
negative emotions and their health correlates.
Keywords: Culture; Positive and negative emotion; Dialectical emotion; Health.
Fortune and misfortune are like the twisted strands of a
rope.
An East Asian proverb
The frequency with which one experiences positive
or negative emotions differs from person to person.
Previous studies have shown that people who tend
to experience one positive emotion more frequently
than other people are also more likely to experience
other positive emotions more frequently than other
people, while the same is true for negative emotions
(Bradburn, 1969; Diener, Smith, & Fujita, 1995;
Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). However, these
findings focus on positive and negative emotion
independently from each other and do not address
how experiences of positive and negative emotion
come together within a given person. We argue
that among people who experience positive emotions more frequently than others, some may also
experience negative emotions more frequently
than others, whereas the others may experience
negative emotions less frequently than others.
The same may be true for those who experience
positive emotions less frequently than others.
Those people who report feeling both positive and
negative emotions more frequently (or infrequently) than others are demonstrating a dialectical
emotional style, which is defined as the propensity
to experience both positive and negative over time,
Correspondence should be addressed to: Yuri Miyamoto, Department of Psychology, 1202 West Johnson Street, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. E-mail: ymiyamoto@wisc.edu
This research was supported by two grants from the National Institute on Aging, one to conduct the MIDUS longitudinal
follow-up study (P01-AG020166), and the other to conduct parallel research in Japan (R37-AG027343).
# 2010 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
http://www.psypress.com/cogemotion
1
DOI:10.1080/02699931003612114
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
thus maintaining a balance between the two. A
non-dialectical emotional style, on the other hand,
is defined as the propensity to experience either
more positive than negative emotion compared to
others over time, or the reverse (more negative than
positive emotion compared to others over time).
Cross-cultural studies have repeatedly documented that East Asians are more likely than
Americans to show a dialectical emotional style as
a group (Bagozzi, Wong, & Yi, 1999). Whereas
Americans show strong negative correlations between positive and negative emotions, East Asians
tend to show weaker negative, or even positive
correlations between the two (Kitayama, Markus,
& Kurokawa, 2000; Schimmack, Oishi, & Diener,
2002). However, the existing literature focusing
on a group-level correlation does not examine how
individuals experience different kinds of dialectical
emotional styles. That is, the weaker correlation
between positive and negative emotions among
East Asians may be due to experiencing both
equally frequently or infrequently. The present
study addresses whether cultural differences can be
observed across different kinds (high, moderate,
low frequency) of dialectical emotional styles.
Beyond that, and in the interest of advancing
understanding of whether dialectical or nondialectical emotion styles are functionally adaptive,
with possible cultural variants therein, we also
examine the health correlates of these various
emotion styles.
Dialectical and non-dialectical emotional
styles vis-à-vis cultural context
At the outset, we note that dialectical emotional
styles manifested over time are distinct from
momentary experience of both positive and negative emotion in a single situation. Studies of the
latter deal primarily with the simultaneous experience of both positive and negative emotion in the
moment (Bagozzi et al., 1999; Leu et al., in press;
Miyamoto, Uchida, & Ellsworth, in press;
Perunovic, Heller, & Rafaeli, 2007; Schimmack,
2001; Scollon, Diener, Oishi, & Biswas-Diener,
2005; Spencer-Rodgers, Peng, & Wang, 2010;
Yik, 2007). Intensity ratings of positive and
2
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
negative emotion in a specific moment, as well
as and experience sampling methods, have been
used to show cultural differences in momentary
experience. The focus of the present study, in
contrast, is how positive and negative emotions come
together within each individual over time, thereby
capturing accumulated emotional experience defined in terms of the frequency (rather than
intensity) of positive and negative emotions across
days, months, or even years.
Cross-cultural studies of dialectical self-view
and dialectical thinking have suggested potential
sources of cultural differences in dialectical emotions (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001;
Peng & Nisbett, 1999; Spencer-Rodgers, Boucher,
Mori, Peng, & Wang, 2009). Peng and Nisbett
(1999) proposed that East Asian dialectical thinking is characterised by a belief that reality is
constantly changing and tolerance of contradictions by finding a ‘‘middle way’’. Compared to
Americans, East Asians tend to expect the present
state of affairs to change (Ji, Nisbett, & Su, 2001),
to prefer dialectical proverbs containing contradictions, such as ‘‘beware of your friends not your
enemies’’, and to seek a middle way when approaching contradictions (Peng & Nisbett, 1999).
We argue that the dialectical thinking characteristic of East Asian culture underlies a cultural script
about how positive and negative emotions should
be combined within each individual. The dominant
cultural script in East Asian culture may be to seek
a middle way by experiencing a balance between
positive and negative emotion.
In the Western culture, on the other hand,
contradiction is something to be resolved and the
middle ground should be avoided (Peng & Nisbett,
1999). When approaching contradictions, Americans tend toward polarising attitudes, whereas
East Asians tend to seek a middle way (Peng &
Nisbett, 1999). On the other hand, cross-cultural
studies on self-evaluation have widely documented
that, compared to East Asians, Westerners have
more positive views toward themselves (Heine &
Hamamura, 2007; Heine, Lehman, Markus, &
Kitayama, 1999) and report higher well-being
(Diener, Suh, Smith, & Shao, 1995; Uchida,
Norasakkunkit, & Kitayama, 2004). The tendency
CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL EMOTIONS
to focus on the positives may underlie an American
cultural script, which emphasises maximisation of
positive emotions and minimisation of negative
emotions (Kitayama et al., 2000).
The differences in dominant cultural scripts
about how positive and negative emotions come
together are reflected in cultural differences in
dialectical emotions. Studies focusing on the
correlation between positive and negative emotions showed that East Asians are more likely than
Americans to show a dialectical emotional style
(Bagozzi et al., 1999; Kitayama et al., 2000;
Schimmack et al., 2002; Scollon et al., 2005).
For example, Schimmack et al. (2002) examined
correlations between frequency ratings of positive
and negative emotions during the past month
across 40 countries and found that negative
correlations between positive and negative emotions were weaker in Asian cultures than in other
cultures. In addition, using a daily experience
sampling method, Scollon et al. (2005) demonstrated that Asians but not Americans show
positive correlations between positive and negative
emotions at a between-individual level.
Although the correlational data indicate cultural differences in overall relationships between
positive and negative emotions, they do not
distinguish between different types of dialectical
emotional styles. That is, the weaker negative
(and sometimes positive) correlation among
Asians may be due to a larger number of Asians
showing high, moderate, or low dialectical emotion types. At the same time, the stronger
negative correlation among Americans can be
due to a larger number of Americans feeling
positive emotions frequently and negative emotions infrequently compared to others (‘‘mostly
positive’’ emotion type), or negative emotions
frequently and positive emotions infrequently
compared to others (‘‘mostly negative’’ emotion
type).
To address the above issues, we conceptualise
dialectical emotions as the relative balance of
positive and negative emotions compared to the
distributions of those emotions in each culture. It is
important to note that our conceptualisation of
dialectical emotions is based on relative levels of
positive and negative emotions compared to the
cultural standards, which we argue is important
given the notably different distributions that occur
for each kind of emotion*i.e., across cultures,
people are more likely to feel positive emotions
than negative emotions (Diener & Diener, 1996;
Schimmack, Radhakrishnan, Oishi, Dzokoto, &
Ahadi, 2002; Suh, Diener, Oishi & Triandis,
1998). That is, defining dialectical emotions in
terms of comparable absolute levels fails to adjust
for the fact that people everywhere are far less likely
to feel negative compared to positive emotions.
As illustrated in Figure 1, one can show a
dialectical emotional style by experiencing a
balance of positive and negative emotions: (i)
frequently; (ii) moderately frequently; or (iii)
infrequently. Although the previous studies have
not focused on the distinction between them, the
three subtypes have unique characteristics. The
most characteristic of the ‘‘middle way’’ thinking
(Peng & Nisbett, 1999) is the emotion type where
positive and negative emotions are felt equally
compared to others, but with moderate frequency.
One who falls into this type can be characterised
as showing ‘‘middle way’’ thinking, or a ‘‘moderate
dialectical’’ emotion type. The emotion type where
positive and negative emotions are felt with high
frequency constitutes the ‘‘high dialectical’’ emotion type. Traditionally, high dialectical type has
been considered to be the most characteristic of
dialecticism or ambivalence. For example, measures of ambivalence operationalise ambivalence as
the degree to which individuals hold equally strong
positive and negative reactions (Priester & Petty,
1996),1 reflecting an assumption that ambivalence
is not only about holding positive and negative
1
It is important to note that our conceptualisation of dialectical emotions is also distinct from formulations of hedonic balance
(Bradburn, 1969), which is the relative preponderance of positive over negative emotions and is derived by subtracting negative
emotions from positive emotions. Neither ambivalence indices nor hedonic balance distinguish between different degrees of
dialectical emotions (high, moderate, or low frequency) and thus are different from our typology approach.
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
3
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
High Positive
High
Dialectical
Mostly Positive
Non-Dialectical
Moderate
Dialectical
High Negative
Mostly Negative
Non-Dialectical
Low Negative
Low
Dialectical
Low Positive
Figure 1. Emotion typology.
reactions equally but also about holding them
intensively/frequently. The other emotion type,
where both positive and negative emotions are
rarely experienced, can be called the ‘‘low dialectical’’ emotion type. The low dialectical emotion
type has been overlooked in the literature on
dialectical emotions because it has generally been
considered to be a manifestation of low emotionality. However, the low dialectical emotion type
shows a balance between infrequent experiences of
positive and negative emotions, and thus may also
be an indication of dialecticism because infrequent
experiences of emotions of one valence do not
imply frequent experiences of emotions of the
opposite valence. We also consider two subtypes
of non-dialectical emotional styles: ‘‘mostly positive’’ and ‘‘mostly negative’’. The former is characterised by frequent experience of positive
emotions combined with infrequent experience
of negative emotions, whereas the latter is characterised by frequent experience of negative emotions and infrequent experience of positive
emotions. These constitute important comparative
types when considering links to health.
Central questions are whether East Asians are
more likely than Americans to fall into any of the
4
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
three dialectical emotion types, whereas Americans are more likely than East Asians to fall into
the non-dialectical emotion types. As we argued
above, there are cultural scripts about how positive
and negative emotions are combined within each
individual. The East Asian cultural script emphasises a middle way by maintaining a balance
between positive and negative emotion, whereas
the cultural script in Western culture focuses on
maximising positive emotions and minimising
negative emotions. The cultural script can influence positive and negative emotions in at least two
ways: through changes in means and distributions.
Because correlation and typology approaches are
insensitive to means, changes in means would not
influence emotion types. On the other hand,
changes in distributions should lead to different
frequencies of emotion types. The presence of
dominant cultural script does not mean that all
members of the culture are equally affected by the
cultural script (which would only influence
means). Some individuals in a given culture may
show an emotional style attuned to the cultural
script, whereas the others may show an emotional
style incompatible to the cultural script. However,
more importantly, the proportion of individuals
CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL EMOTIONS
who align their emotional style with a dominant
cultural script (e.g., ‘‘maximise positive’’) will be
expected to be greater in a culture in which the
script is dominant (e.g., the USA) than in a
culture where it is not (e.g., Japan).
We thus predicted that a larger number of
East Asians than Americans would fall into the
moderate dialectical emotion type, because it
exemplifies the cultural script of a middle way.
Showing the moderate dialectical emotion type
requires one to experience both positive and
negative emotions moderately frequently, thus
achieving both a balance and a middle way
simultaneously. We also predicted that East
Asians would be more likely than Americans to
fall into the low dialectical type. People may fall
into the low dialectical type for at least two
reasons: dialecticism or emotional detachment.
For both reasons, we predicted that East Asians
would be more likely to fall into this type because
Eastern culture not only emphasises dialecticism
(Peng & Nisbett, 1999) but also values detachment and not being swayed by feeling, as reflected
in Buddhism (de Silva, 1995). At the same time,
evidence supporting cultural differences in the
high dialectical emotion type is unclear. The
previous studies using measures of ambivalence
demonstrated that East Asians show higher
ambivalence, which is based on intensity as well
as on balance, than Americans when evaluating
themselves (Choi & Choi, 2002; Hamamura,
Heine, & Paulhus, 2008; Spencer-Rodgers,
Peng, Wang, & Hou, 2004), suggesting that
East Asians may be more likely to fall into high
dialectical emotion types than Americans. However, East Asians’ tendency to report more
negative reactions than Americans might have
contributed to their higher ambivalence scores.
Thus, it is unclear whether previous cross-cultural
findings using ambivalence indices reflect cultural
differences in the tendency for dialecticism or the
tendency to experience negative emotions.
On the other hand, we predicted that a larger
number of Americans than East Asians would fall
into mostly positive non-dialectical emotion type,
which is consistent with the American cultural
script to experience the maximum amount of
positive and minimum amount of negative emotions. A prediction about cultural differences in
mostly negative non-dialectical type, however, is
unclear. Cultural differences in dialectical thinking suggest that the mostly negative type is more
prevalent among Americans than among East
Asians, whereas cultural differences in positivity
seem to suggest that the mostly negative type is
more prevalent among East Asians than among
Americans.
Dialectical emotional styles and health
Previous studies linking emotion to health have
consistently shown that decreased negative emotion and increased positive emotion are associated
with positive physical and mental health outcomes
(Kiecolt-Glaser, McGuire, Robles, & Glaser,
2002; Kring, 2001; Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener,
2005; Pressman & Cohen, 2005), thereby suggesting a possibility that, across cultures, the mostly
positive non-dialectical type is associated with
better health and the mostly negative nondialectical type is associated with worse health.
An important issue yet to be examined is whether
dialectical emotions are associated with more
beneficial outcomes in East Asia than in the
USA. Compared to Americans, Chinese tend to
view those who make dialectical predictions as wise
(Ji et al., 2001). In that context, where a cultural
script prescribes dialectical and middle way thinking and feeling, dialectical emotions may be associated with positive functioning, including better
health outcomes, compared to Western cultures
where a cultural script does not value dialecticism
(Nisbett et al., 2001; Peng & Nisbett, 1999).
Cultural differences in coping styles may shed
light on understanding mental and physical health
correlates of emotional styles. Whereas Westerners
try to influence and change their environments to
fit their needs, Easterners tend to adjust themselves to their environments (Morling, Kitayama,
& Miyamoto, 2002; Weisz, Rothbaum, & Blackburn, 1984). Maintenance of relative balance
between positive and negative emotion (i.e., dialectical emotion style) may better prepare Easterners to attune and adjust to both positive and
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
5
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
negative cues in their environments and thus may
promote better adjustment. A previous study has
shown that whereas the influencing tendency is
associated with lower depression and anxiety
among non-Asians, the association was weaker or
even reversed among Asians and Asian Americans
(Sastry & Ross, 1998), pointing out a possibility
that culturally dominant strategies are associated
with better health outcomes than culturally nondominant ones. It is thus possible that the
dialectical emotional style that fosters the adjustment strategy is associated with better heath
outcomes in East Asia than in the USA.
Nonetheless, some have pointed to the positive
role of negative emotions even in Western culture.
Meaning in life and deep connection to others are
frequently found when one is facing adversity and
experiencing difficulty and pain, indicating that
experiencing negative emotions, for some people,
brings positive experiences (Ryff & Singer, 1998,
2003). Negative emotions, within a certain range,
may thus be positively linked with health (Mayne,
2001). Several different lines of research*whether
it be the study with people in close relationships,
breast cancer patients, or people who have experienced traumatic events*suggest that experiencing
and expressing negative emotions rather than
suppressing them has beneficial outcomes, such
as high relationship quality and fewer clinic visits,
and even longer survival rate (Graham, Huang,
Clark & Helgeson, 2008; Pennebaker, 1993;
Spiegel, Bloom, Kraemer, & Gottheil, 1989),
though the evidence showing the causal role of
negative emotion is mixed (King, 2002).
Although researchers have examined the effects of positive and negative emotions on human
functioning independently from each other, how
health is influenced by the intermingling of the
two has received little attention. In the realm of
mental health, Keyes (2002) proposed a model
that combined different positive and negative
indicators of mental health and explored the
health implications thereof. Keyes found that
those who showed high mental health and no
depression (i.e., labelled ‘‘flourishing’’) had the
least health impairments (e.g., functional limitation of daily activity or the number of workdays
lost or cut back), whereas those who showed
depression and low positive mental health (i.e.,
labelled ‘‘depressed and languishing’’) had the
most health impairments. The primary focus
was on the ‘‘flourishing’’ quadrant (i.e., mostly
positive non-dialectical type according to our
formulation) and how it promotes health compared to the other mental health types.
We argue, however, that the particular cultural
context within which one is embedded may make
different positive and negative combinations
more, or less, prevalent, and have distinct health
correlates.2 Specifically, we hypothesised that
dialectical emotional style is linked to better
health in Japan than in the USA. In addition,
given the literature on health costs of negative
emotion and health benefits of positive emotions
(Keyes, 2002; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2002; Kring,
2001; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005; Pressman &
Cohen, 2005), we also hypothesised that, across
cultures, the mostly positive non-dialectical type is
linked to the best health, whereas the mostly
negative non-dialectical type is linked to the worst
health.
Our health measures include subjective ratings
of overall health as well as specific health symptoms
(e.g., headaches, trouble sleeping) in the past
month. The latter measure of health symptoms
strengthens the link between the temporal focus of
our emotion assessments (in the past 30 days), given
comparable temporal frames. Global assessments of
overall health have been shown to be important
predictors of numerous outcomes, including length
of life (Idler & Benjamini, 1997; Siegel, Bradley, &
Kasl, 2003). At the same time, global measures
may also be more likely to reflect one’s beliefs rather
than actual experience (Robinson & Clore, 2002),
which is another reason for including assessment
of specific health symptoms in the past month in
addition to the global subjective health measures.
We explored whether the hypothesised relation-
2
Also, while Keyes included numerous measures of psychological, social, and emotional functioning in defining his typology,
we focus exclusively on specific combinations of positive and negative emotions.
6
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL EMOTIONS
ships between culture and emotion types would be
found for both types of health measures or whether
the results would depend on the type of health
measures examined.
Guiding hypotheses
We adopted a typological approach to dialecticism and hypothesised that Japanese adults
would be more likely than American adults to
fall into the moderate and low dialectical
emotion type, whereas Americans adults would
be more likely than Japanese adults to fall into
the mostly positive non-dialectical emotion type.
We also explored whether there were cultural
differences in the proportion of individuals who
fell into the high dialectical emotion type and
the mostly negative non-dialectical emotion
type. Second, we examined cultural differences
in the health correlates of emotion types. We
hypothesised that, across cultures, the mostly
positive non-dialectical type would be linked
to the best health, whereas the mostly negative
non-dialectical type would be linked to the worst
health. We also hypothesised that the dialectical
emotional style would be linked to better
health in Japan than in the USA. We further
explored whether cultural differences in health
correlates depend on specific types of dialectical
emotions.
high-school degree or less and 38.7% had a 4year college degree or higher.
The Japanese sample. A convenience sample of
Japanese adults from both the metropolitan area
(Tokyo) and a provincial capital area (Sapporo)
were recruited to participate in a survey study.
Participants in Tokyo were recruited through
adult education classes; the participants in Sapporo were recruited through college students, who
asked their adult family members to fill out the
questionnaire. The present analyses are based on
494 Japanese adults (212 males and 282 females)
who completed the emotion measures. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire. The ages ranged from 20 to 81 years
(M51.57). As to educational background,
36.4% completed high-school or less and 33.5%
had a 4-year college degree of higher. Although
the Japanese sample is not a probability sample,
demographic factors were comparable with the
American sample. In addition, the demographic
factors of the Japanese sample were also comparable to the Japanese census data. According to the
2000 Japanese national population census data,
among the individuals over 14 years old, 41.6%
have a high-school degree or less, 24.6% have a
4-year college degree or higher, and 8.2% are still
in school.
Emotion measures
METHOD
Participants
The American sample. We used the data from the
Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) II survey,
which is a national probability sample recruited
through random digit dialling procedures. The
survey included a telephone interview and a selfadministered questionnaire. The present analyses
are based on 3828 individuals (1722 males and
2106 females) who completed emotion measures.
The ages ranged from 30 to 84 years (M55.92).
Thirty-three percent of the individuals had a
Positive and negative emotions. To measure dialectical emotions, participants were asked to rate
how much of the time during the past 30 days
they felt six negative emotions and six positive
emotions (see Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998, for
details about the sources) using a 5-point rating
scale ranging from none of the time to all the time.
The positive emotions were: cheerful; in good
spirits; extremely happy; calm and peaceful;
satisfied; and full of life. The negative emotions
were: so sad nothing could cheer you up; nervous;
restless or fidgety; hopeless; that everything was
an effort; and worthless. Cronbach’s alphas were
.91 and .94 for positive emotions and .85 and .87
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
7
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
for negative emotions, Americans and Japanese,
respectively.
RESULTS
The comparison of the means showed that
Americans reported experiencing positive emotions more frequently (M3.43, SD0.70) and
negative emotions less frequently (M1.50,
SD0.56) than Japanese did (Ms3.36, 1.75,
SDs0.70, 0.69), ts(4320)2.06, 8.99, 95%
CIs.00 to .14, .19 to .30, ds.10, .43, positive
and negative emotion, respectively. Following the
previous studies on dialectical emotion, we first
computed the correlation between positive and
negative emotion. Consistent with previous crosscultural studies, Americans showed a stronger
inverse relationship between positive and negative
emotion (r .61) than Japanese (r .42),
Z5.45, pB.001, q0.26 (Cohen, 1977).
Health measures
Subjective health. To assess overall health, participants were asked to report their health on an 11point scale ranging from 0 (the worst possible
health) to 10 (the best possible health).
Physical symptoms. The level of health was also
measured by the number of specific physical
symptoms (i.e., headaches, backaches, sweating a
lot, irritability, hot flushes or flashes, aches or
stiffness in joints, trouble sleeping, leaking urine,
and pain or discomfort during intercourse) that
participants reported experiencing during the past
30 days.
Procedure
Cultural differences in dialectical emotion
types
The measures were collected as part of the larger
self-administered questionnaire. Respondents first
responded to the subjective health measure together with other measures relevant to health
(e.g., health locus of control), which was followed
by questions about physical symptoms. Subsequently, they reported their experiences of negative and positive emotions. The order of the four
measures was the same in both cultures.
Next, we used a typological approach to classify
respondents into three dialectical types and two
non-dialectical types. This was accomplished by
first partitioning the two cultural samples into
quartiles according to their separate positive and
negative emotions scores and then generating a
44 table with positive emotion quartiles as a
row and negative emotion quartiles as a column
(Goodman, 1969; see Table 1). We determined
Table 1. A crosstab table according to respondent’s placement in positive emotion quartile and negative emotion quartile by culture
Negative emotion quartile
Positive emotion
quartile
highest
2nd highest
2nd lowest
lowest
Americans
highest
2nd highest
2nd lowest
lowest
77
72
212
503
(2.01)
(1.88)
(5.54)
(13.10)
196
192
205
170
(5.12)
(5.02)
(5.36)
(4.44)
245
151
145
69
(6.40)
(3.94)
(3.79)
(1.80)
965
342
200
84
(25.21)
(8.93)
(5.22)
(2.19)
Japanese
highest
2nd highest
2nd lowest
lowest
10
24
45
36
(2.02)
(4.86)
(9.11)
(7.29)
19
30
36
20
(3.85)
(6.07)
(7.29)
(4.05)
37
38
27
17
(7.49)
(7.69)
(5.47)
(3.44)
71
42
30
12
(14.37)
(8.50)
(6.07)
(2.43)
Note: Numbers are cell counts. Percentages are shown in parentheses.
8
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL EMOTIONS
the quartiles separately for Japanese and Americans, given cultural differences in use of selfrating scales. To deal with the latter, researchers
often standardise the data before cross-cultural
comparison (Bond, 1988; Tsai, Knutson, & Fung,
2006). We adjusted for this cultural difference by
determining the quartiles based on the distribution within each culture.
To deal with ties between quartiles, we
rounded each cut up to a whole number. For
example, if the 25th percentile of the positive
emotion measure was a score of 13.47, we rounded
up to a score of 14, so that respondents with the
same score would not be distributed into different
quartiles. This resulted, however, in having less
than 20% of the respondents in the last quartile.
The distributions for both cultures were, however,
skewed toward the higher end for the positive
emotion rating and the lower end for the negative
emotion rating, and quartile cuts were counted
from the skewed ends. Thus, counting in the
above fashion allowed us to better reflect the
distributions of the emotion ratings.
Looking at Table 1, it is noteworthy that the
largest cultural differences were found in the most
extreme two non-dialectical cells: the highest
positive and the lowest negative cell (i.e., extremely positive cell; 25% and 14%, Americans and
Japanese, respectively, Z5.31, pB.001, h.28;
Cohen, 1977) and the highest negative and the
lowest positive cell (i.e., extremely negative cell;
13% and 7%, Americans and Japanese, respectively, Z3.71, pB.001, h20). These patterns
are consistent with the stronger negative correlation between positive and negative emotion found
in the American sample than in the Japanese
sample. The fact that Americans were more likely
than Japanese to fall not only into the extremely
positive cell but also into the extremely negative
cell suggests that dialecticism is underlying the
cultural differences in the correlation. At the same
time, the cultural difference was larger for the
extremely positive cell (11%) than for the extremely negative cell (6%), Z3.27, pB.001, h
.18, suggesting that cultural differences in positivity may also play a role. On the other hand, there
were four cells that Japanese were significantly
more likely than Americans to fall into, though
there were spread across the table, Zs2.45 to
4.23, hs.06 to .17.
To test our hypothesis regarding specific emotion types, we divided the respondents into
emotion types as depicted in Figure 1 based on
their location on the transition table. The mostly
positive non-dialectical group (positive emotion
ranges3.5 to 5, 3.17 to 5 and Ms3.98, 4.05,
for Americans and Japanese, respectively; negative
emotion ranges1 to 1.33, 1 to 1.67 and Ms
1.11, 1.14) corresponded to three cells in the top
right corner and the mostly negative non-dialectical
group (positive emotion ranges1 to 3.33, 1 to 3
and Ms2.53, 2.67, and negative emotion ranges
1.5 to 5, 1.83 to 5 and Ms2.24, 2.65) corresponded to three cells in the bottom left corner.
The low dialectical group (positive emotion
ranges1 to 3.33, 1 to 3 and Ms3.11, 2.70,
and negative emotion ranges1 to 1.33, 1 to 1.67
and Ms1.14, 1.16) was three cells in the bottom
right corner, the moderate dialectical group (positive emotion ranges3 to 3.67, 3 to 3.83 and
Ms3.38, 3.23, and negative emotion ranges
1.33 to 1.67, 1.33 to 2.17 and Ms1.47, 1.75) was
four cells in the middle, and the high dialectical
group (positive emotion ranges3.5 to 5, 3.17 to
5 and Ms3.92, 3.80, and negative emotion
ranges1.5 to 5, 1.83 to 5 and Ms1.79, 2.44)
was three cells in the top left corner.
We compared proportions of those falling into
each of the emotion types to examine cultural
differences in the prevalence of emotion types. As
shown in Figure 2, supporting our hypothesis,
Japanese were more likely than Americans to fall
into the moderate dialectical type (Z4.48, pB
.001, h.20). As predicted, Japanese were more
likely to fall into the low dialectical type than
Americans, though the difference was marginally
significant (Z1.94, p.05, h.09). The cultural difference in the prevalence of the high
dialectical type was not statistically significant
(Z1.24, ns, h.06). On the other hand, compared to Japanese, Americans were more likely
to fall into the mostly positive non-dialectical type
(Z4.36, pB.001, h.21), which supported our
second hypothesis. However, the difference in the
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
9
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
45
Percentage of Respondents
40
35
30
mostly positive
25
low dialectical
moderate dialectical
20
high dialectical
15
mostly negative
10
5
0
Americans
Japanese
Figure 2. Percentage of respondents falling into emotion types. Error bars represent standard errors.
prevalence of the mostly negative non-dialectical
type was not statistically significant (Z1.33, ns,
h.06). We further conducted multinomial regressions for Americans and Japanese separately to
examine within-culture differences in the proportions of emotion types. Most of the differences
between emotion types were significant in the
USA, Wald23.25 to 638.26, dfs1, psB.001,
and in Japan, Wald3.86 to 42.39, dfs1, psB
.05 to .001, except for the difference between low
and high dialectical emotion types, Wald0.09,
0.32, dfs1, ns, for Americans and Japanese,
respectively. Importantly, in Japan, the difference
between mostly positive type and moderately
dialectical type was not significant either,
Wald1.28, df1, p.2, suggesting that moderately dialectical type was as prevalent as mostly
positive type in Japan.
Together, the above findings suggest that
Japanese adults are more likely than Americans
adults to fall into the moderate dialectical emotion
type. On the other hand, the Americans are more
likely than the Japanese to fall into the mostly
positive non-dialectical type. We did not observe
cultural differences in the high dialectical type or
in the mostly negative non-dialectical type.
10
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
Cultural differences in the low dialectical type
were weak, though in the predicted direction.
Cultural differences in health concomitants
of dialectical emotions
We next examined whether dialectical emotions
are associated with better health profiles in Japan
than in the USA. Health status was measured in
terms of subjective rating of general health as well
as the number of physical symptoms respondents
reported to have experienced during the past 30
days. The two measures were significantly correlated with each other in both cultures, rs .29.
Overall, the Japanese reported lower subjective health than the Americans did (Ms6.83
vs. 7.40, SDs1.90, 1.57), t(4302)7.07, d
0.34, but fewer health symptoms than the Americans did (Ms2.53 vs. 4.88 out of 9 health conditions, SDs1.97, 1.97), t(4299)25.04, d
1.20. Although cultural differences in levels of
health are interesting in themselves, we did not
want such differences in overall means (as are
frequently found in cultural research; e.g., Bond,
1988) to obscure the comparison between cultures. We thus standardised the measures within
each culture.
CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL EMOTIONS
To examine how dialectical emotion types are
linked to subjective rating of general health across
cultures, a 2 (Culture: Japan, USA)5 (Emotion
Types: mostly positive vs. mostly negative vs.
low dialectical vs. moderate dialectical vs. high
dialectical)2 (Gender) analysis of covariance
(ANCOVA) was performed with age as a covariate and subjective health as a dependent variable.
As shown in Figure 3, there was a main effect of
Emotion Types, F(4, 4275)73.71, pB.001.
Planned contrasts showed that the mostly positive
emotion type was associated with higher subjective health than any of the dialectical emotion
types, t(4275)9.64, 7.67, 7.36, pB.001, d
0.58, 0.51, 0.49, for low, moderate, and high
dialectical types, respectively, which in turn were
associated with higher subjective health than the
mostly negative type, t(4275)9.91, 13.75,
11.18, pB.001, d0.51, 0.60, 0.57. This supports our hypothesis that, across cultures, the
mostly positive type is associated with the best
health and the mostly negative type is associated
with the worst health. None of the other effects
were significant, including the hypothesised interaction between Culture and Emotion Type.
To examine whether dialectical emotion types
are linked to a more specific measure of health
across cultures, a 2 (Culture)5 (Emotion Types:
mostly positive vs. mostly negative vs. low dialectical vs. moderate dialectical vs. high dialectical)2 (Gender) ANCOVA was performed
with age as a covariate and physical symptoms as a
dependent variable. In addition to the main effect
of Emotion Type, F(4, 4272)79.76, pB.001, a
two-way interaction between Culture and Emotion Types was significant, F(4, 4272)4.40, pB
.005. As shown in Figure 4, supporting our
hypothesis, in both cultures, the mostly positive
non-dialectical type was associated with the lowest
number of physical symptoms, whereas the mostly
negative non-dialectical type was associated with
the largest number of physical symptoms, though
the mostly positive type was not significantly
different from the low dialectical type among
Japanese, t(4272)1.11, ns. In addition, whereas
the moderate dialectical type was associated with a
lower number of reported physical symptoms in
Japan than in the USA, t(4272)2.20, pB.05,
d0.27, the mostly negative non-dialectical types
were associated with a larger number of physical
0.8
Subjective Health (Z-score)
0.6
0.4
0.2
mostly positive
low dialectical
0
moderate dialectical
–0.2
high dialectical
mostly negative
–0.4
–0.6
–0.8
–1
Americans
Japanese
Figure 3. Subjective health: Interaction between emotion type and culture. Error bars represent standard errors.
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
11
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
1
Number of Physical Symptoms (Z-score)
0.8
0.6
0.4
mostly positive
low dialectical
0.2
moderate dialectical
0
high dialectical
mostly negative
–0.2
–0.4
–0.6
–0.8
Americans
Japanese
Figure 4. Number of physical symptoms: Interaction between emotion type and culture. Error bars represent standard errors.
symptoms in Japan than in the USA, t(4272)
2.39, pB.05, d0.26. There was no cultural
difference in low and high dialectical and mostly
positive types, ts(4272)1.40, 1.79, 0.87, ns, d
0.20, 0.28, 0.07, low dialectical, high dialectical,
and mostly positive, respectively.3
To examine whether emotion types explain
physical symptoms above and beyond the absolute
levels of positive and negative emotion, we
entered the level of positive and negative emotion
as covariates. Both the main effect of Emotion
Type, F(1, 4270)6.84, pB.001, and the interaction between Culture and Emotion Type
remained significant, F(4, 4270)3.66, pB.01.
Even after controlling for the level of positive and
negative emotions, moderate dialectical emotion
type was significantly associated with better
health in Japan than in the USA, t(4270)
4.37, pB.01. The cultural differences were not
significant for the other emotion types, tsB1.79.
These findings provide support to our hypothesis
that dialectical emotional style*especially the
moderately dialectical type*is associated with
better health in Japan than in the USA. At the
same time, once the levels of emotions were
controlled for, cultural differences in the health
correlates of the mostly negative non-dialectical
type disappeared. The effects of the mostly
negative non-dialectical type on health symptoms
may be mainly driven by the absolute levels of
positive and negative emotion.
Furthermore, we also included subjective health
as another covariate to explore whether dialectical
emotion types explain physical symptoms even
when subjective judgement of health is controlled
for. Again, both the main effect of Emotion Type,
F(1, 4251)6.84, pB.001, and the interaction
between Culture and Emotion Type remained
significant, F(4, 4251)3.83, pB.005. The moderate dialectical type was associated with fewer
3
In addition, females were more likely than males to report a larger number of physical symptoms, F(1, 4272)33.91, pB.001.
There was an interaction between culture and gender, indicating that the gender difference was larger in the USA than in Japan,
F(1, 4272)4.35, p B.05. There was no three-way interaction between gender, culture, and emotion type, F B1.
12
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL EMOTIONS
reported physical symptoms in Japan than in the
USA, t(4251)4.29, pB.01. The cultural differences in other emotion types were not significant,
tsB1.71. The fact that cultural differences in the
health benefits of emotion types were observed
even after controlling for subjective health suggests
that the observed effects on health reflect relatively
objective health benefits.
DISCUSSION
Previous cross-cultural studies have repeatedly
demonstrated that East Asians tend to show
more dialectical emotional styles than Americans.
The present study extended the previous studies by
exploring the specific ways in which positive and
negative emotions are combined. By distinguishing between different types of dialectical emotional style, we found that Japanese are more likely
than Americans to show a moderate dialectical
type. On the other hand, Americans are more
likely than Japanese to show a mostly positive
emotion type. The cultural differences in high
dialectical emotion type and in mostly negative
emotion type were not significant. Cultural differences in the low dialectical emotion type were
statistically marginal. Furthermore, we explored
whether dialectical emotion types were linked to
better health profiles depending on one’s cultural
background. Our results show that the moderate
dialectical emotion type was associated with fewer
health symptoms in Japan than in the USA.
Overall, such results suggest culturally contingent
pathways between emotions and health.
Cultural differences and similarity in
emotional types
The present study found that Japanese are more
likely than Americans to fall into the moderately
dialectical emotion type, whereas Americans are
more likely than Japanese to fall into the mostly
positive emotion type. A previous cross-cultural
study on cognition has shown that, when dealing
with contradictions, East Asians tend to seek a
middle way, whereas Americans tend to polarise
their attitudes (Peng & Nisbett, 1999). The
present results suggest that such cognitive differences can be extended to emotional experiences.
Whereas East Asians seek a middle way by
maintaining a balance between a moderate amount of emotions (compared to the cultural standards), Americans tend to polarise their emotional
experiences by maximising positive emotions and
minimising negative emotions. At the same time,
cultural differences in the high dialectical type
were not significant, indicating that cultural
differences in emotional dialectics are manifested
mostly in the middle-way thinking rather than in
the large swing of the emotional pendulum. East
Asian culture may socialise individuals to seek a
balance in a relatively moderate way.
It is noteworthy that cultural differences in the
mostly negative type were not significant either.
In addition, the crosstab table (Table 1) showed
that Americans were more likely than Japanese
to fall into the highest negative and the lowest
positive (i.e., the extreme case of the mostly
negative type). Cross-cultural studies have repeatedly demonstrated the relative negativity of East
Asians compared to Westerners (Diener et al.,
1995; Heine & Hamamura, 2007; Heine et al.,
1999; Uchida et al., 2004). In fact, we also found
cultural differences in the overall means of positive
and negative emotions; Japanese tended to feel
positive emotions less frequently and negative
emotions more frequently than Americans. However, when we focused on the emotional styles,
which were determined based on the distribution
within each culture, there was no cultural difference in the likelihood of falling into the mostly
negative type and Americans were more likely than
Japanese to fall into the extremely negative cell,
although Americans were, as predicted, much
more likely to fall into the mostly positive type
and to the extremely positive cell than Japanese.
Furthermore, the mostly negative type was associated with worse health symptoms in Japan than
in the USA, suggesting that being predominantly
negative in emotional experience is not adaptive in
Japan. It appears that Japan is a culture that does
not extol negative over positive emotion, but
rather a balance between the two.
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
13
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
Health implications
The moderate dialectical emotion type was associated with better health, specifically a fewer
number of health symptoms over the last 30 days,
in Japan than in the USA. Thus, practising the
middle way emotionally seems to have health
benefits in Japan. These results suggest that
culturally distinct emotion types may be functionally adaptive. What is equally noteworthy is that
the moderate dialectical emotion type in the USA is
conducive to poorer health, after controlling for
overall cultural differences in the level of health.
Thus, cultural context, or more importantly, fit of
one’s emotional style with the cultural context,
seems to be essential for understanding variation in
health symptoms. At the same time, the present
research is based on a single time of measurement,
which obscures causal directionality. Dialectical
emotional styles may confer better health in Japan
than in the USA, but it is also possible that better
health increases emotional balance in Japan,
whereas good health in the USA may promote
the mostly positive non-dialectical emotion profile.
On the other hand, the moderate dialectical
emotion type was not associated with higher
ratings of global health in Japan than in the USA.
It is noteworthy that we observed the health
benefits of the moderate dialectical emotion type
with the specific measure of health (i.e., physical
symptoms such as headaches and back pain), but
not with the more global measure of health. Nonspecific measures tend to reflect people’s beliefs
about their health rather than the actual experience
of health (Robinson & Clore, 2002). It is possible
that, in Japan, the moderate dialectical emotion
may be associated with better health experiences,
but not with one’s beliefs about overall health.
It should be noted that we also found cultural
differences in the overall number of health
symptoms and subjective rating of health. Literature on cultural differences in physical health
provides mixed evidence along these lines. Some
have found poorer physical health among Americans than among Japanese (Alonso et al., 2004;
Janevic, Ajrouch, Merline, Akiyama, & Antonucci, 2000), whereas the others do not find such
14
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
cultural differences (Janevic et al., 2000). Interestingly, corresponding to our results, those that
found better health among Japanese tend to use
specific health conditions as an index of physical
health, whereas those that did not tend to use
global self-report measures of health (e.g., asking
respondents to rate how healthy they are).
Limitations and future directions
There are several limitations of the present study.
A first is the use of self-report measures to assess
both emotional experience as well as health
outcomes, and thereby, possibly compounding
person-specific tendencies to construe one’s feelings and one’s health in generally positive or
negative ways. To strengthen the evidence that
dialectical and non-dialectical emotional styles are
functionally adaptive in ways that differ by
culture, it would be valuable to assess health
with more objective indicators, such as measures
of stress hormones (e.g., levels of daily salivary
cortisol, cardiovascular risk factors, or inflammatory factors) and sleeping quality, many of which
have been shown to covary with psychosocial
factors and socioeconomic status (e.g., Friedman
et al., 2007; Ryff et al., 2006). Examining how
emotional styles are linked to such objective
measures of health, depending on the cultural
context, would richly extend the present findings.
Furthermore, the present study as well as the
literature does not provide evidence to determine
whether low dialectical emotion type is a manifestation of dialecticism or emotional detachment.
Future research may disentangle the causes of low
dialectical emotion type by measuring physiological responses to a physical challenge task, which
examines whether the low dialectical type is
associated with quick recovery from the challenge
task or with blunted physiological reaction.
Second, the present study measured retrospective emotions and thus may reflect participants’
beliefs about their emotions rather than their
actual emotions. Cultural differences tend to be
larger when self-reports are based on one’s beliefs
than on immediate experience (Robinson & Clore,
2002). At the same time, recent studies demon-
CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL EMOTIONS
strated cultural differences in dialectal emotions
even when measuring online report of emotions
(Bagozzi et al., 1999; Perunovic et al., 2007),
indicating that actual emotional experience may
also differ across cultures.
Third, the present study focused on the East
West differences in dialectical emotions but there
may be sociocultural variations within each culture. For example, low socioeconomic status in
the USA is associated with lower perceived
control and lower health (Lachman & Weaver,
1998). The lack of control may lead low SES
individuals to fall into the dialectical emotional
style, since they may need to adjust to positive and
negative events impinging on them (Markus,
Ryff, Curhan, & Palmersheim, 2004). High
SES individuals, in turn, may be especially likely
to fall into the mostly positive emotional type,
because they can exert control over their lives to
maximise the positive and minimise the negative.
In addition, individuals are not fixed into a
particular emotional type. Throughout the lifecourse trajectory, individuals may change the
configuration of their positive and negative emotions depending on role changes or other adversities. Examining the age trajectories of emotional
types and how they may depend on cultural
context will allow us to capture the nature of
dialectical emotions across time.
Fourth, future research may also examine social
relational factors that underlie emotional styles. It
is likely that relational contexts promote certain
emotional styles; managing multiple roles or being
embedded in the prescribed relationships instead
of voluntarily choosing the relationships (Adams,
2003; Adams & Plaut, 2003) may be associated
with experiencing dialectical emotions. For example, living with in-laws may bring both
positives and negatives to one’s life. In addition,
major life events provide particular context with
which one needs to cope. Previous research has
suggested that, in the USA, positive and negative
emotions are more inversely correlated when
people recently experienced stressful life events
(e.g., the death of a spouse; Zautra, Reich, Davis,
Potter, & Nicolson, 2000). Such an inverse
correlation may indicate that non-dialectical emo-
tion style is more prevalent than dialectical
emotion style among stressed individuals, but
does not tell us whether there are more mostly
positive types than mostly negative types, or
which emotional style leads to a better adjustment. The present typology could be useful in
determining the specific emotional style that leads
to resilience under stressful circumstances.
Conclusion
An emerging body of research has documented
cultural differences in dialectical emotions (Bagozzi
et al., 1999; Kitayama et al., 2000; Perunovic
et al., 2007; Schimmack, 2009; Schimmack et al.,
2002; Scollon et al., 2005). The present study
extended these findings by replicating the previous cultural differences found with college
samples in a more age-diverse sample and by
specifying the particular ways in which positive
and negative emotions are combined. In addition,
health implications of dialectical emotional styles
were explored. These findings show how the
functions of dialectical emotional styles are contingent on cultural context in which one is
embedded. Being dialectical can bring health
benefits for people living in the Japanese cultural
context, but may be accompanied by costs for
those living in the USA, which heavily rests on
a cultural prescription to be mostly positive.
Manuscript received 25 June 2009
Revised manuscript received 23 September 2009
Manuscript Accepted 11 December 2009
First published online day month year
REFERENCES
Adams, G. (2003). The cultural grounding of personal
relationship: Enemyship in North American and
West African worlds. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 88, 948968.
Adams, G., & Plaut, V. C. (2003). The cultural
grounding of personal relationship: Friendship in
North American and West African worlds. Personal
Relationships, 10, 335349.
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
15
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
Alonso, J., Ferrer, M., Gandek, B., Ware, J., Aaronson,
N., Mosconi, P., et al. (2004). Health-related
quality of life associated with chronic conditions in
eight countries: Results from the International
Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project.
Quality of Life Research: An International Journal of
Quality of Life Aspects of Treatment Care & Rehabilitation, 13, 283298.
Bagozzi, R. P., Wong, N., & Yi, Y. (1999). The role of
culture and gender in the relationship between
positive and negative affect. Cognition and Emotion,
13, 641672.
Bond, M. H. (1988). Finding universal dimensions of
individual variation in multicultural studies of
values: The Rokeach and Chinese value surveys.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 1009
1015.
Bradburn, N. (1969). The structure of psychological wellbeing. Oxford, UK: Aldine.
Choi, I., & Choi, Y. (2002). Culture and self-concept
flexibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
28, 15081517.
Cohen, J. (1977). Statistical power analysis for the
behavioral sciences (rev. ed.). New York: Academic
Press.
de Silva, P. (1995). Theoretical perspectives on emotions in early Buddhism. In J. Marks & R. T. Ames
(Eds.), Emotions in Asian thought: A dialogue in
comparative philosophy (pp. 109121). Albany, NY:
State University of New York Press.
Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are
happy. Psychological Science, 7, 181185.
Diener, E., Smith, H., & Fujita, F. (1995). The
personality structure of affect. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 69, 130141.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Smith, H., & Shao, L. (1995).
National differences in reported subjective wellbeing: Why do they occur? Social Indicators Research,
34, 732.
Friedman, E., Love, G., Rosenkranz, M., Urry, H.,
Davidson, R., Singer, B., et al. (2007). Socioeconomic status predicts objective and subjective
sleep quality in aging women. Psychosomatic Medicine, 69, 682691.
Goodman, L. A. (1969). How to ransack social
mobility tables and other kinds of cross-classification
tables. The American Journal of Sociology, 75, 140.
Graham, S., Huang, J., Clark, M., & Helgeson, V.
(2008). The positives of negative emotions: Willingness to express negative emotions promotes
16
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 394406.
Hamamura, T., Heine, S., & Paulhus, D. (2008).
Cultural differences in response styles: The role of
dialectical thinking. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 932942.
Heine, S. J., & Hamamura, T. (2007). In search of East
Asian self-enhancement. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 124.
Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., Markus, H. R., &
Kitayama, S. (1999). Is there a universal need for
positive self-regard? Psychological Review, 106, 766
794.
Idler, E. L., & Benjamini, Y. (1997). Self-rated health
and mortality: A review of twenty-seven community
studies. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38,
2137.
Janevic, M., Ajrouch, K., Merline, A., Akiyama, H., &
Antonucci, T. (2000). The social relationsphysical
health connection: A comparison of elderly samples
from the United States and Japan. Journal of Health
Psychology, 5, 413429.
Ji, L. J., Nisbett, R. E., & Su, Y. (2001). Culture,
change, and prediction. Psychological Science, 12,
450456.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum:
From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of
Health and Social Behavior, 43, 207222.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J., McGuire, L., Robles, T., & Glaser
R. (2002). Emotions, morbidity, and mortality: New
perspectives from psychoneuroimmunology. Annual
Review of Psychology, 53, 83107.
King, L. (2002). Gain without pain? Expressive writing
and self-regulation. The writing cure: How expressive
writing promotes health and emotional well-being (pp.
119134). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., & Kurokawa, M. (2000).
Culture, emotion, and well-being: Good feelings in
Japan and the United States. Cognition and Emotion,
14, 93124.
Kring, A. (2001). Emotion and psychopathology. In
T. J. Mayne & G. A. Bonanno (Eds.), Emotions:
Current issues and future directions (pp. 337360).
New York: Guilford Press.
Lachman, M. E., & Weaver, S. L. (1998). The sense of
control as a moderator of social class differences in
health and well-being. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 74(3), 763773.
Leu, J., Mesquita, B., Ellsworth, P. C., Zhang, Z.,
Huijan, Y., Buchtel, E., et al. (in press). Situational
CULTURE AND DIALECTICAL EMOTIONS
differences in dialectical emotions: Boundary conditions in a cultural comparison of North Americans
and East Asians. Cognition and Emotion. Advance
online publication. doi:10.1080/02699930802650911
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The
benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness
lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803855.
Markus, H., Ryff, C., Curhan, K., & Palmersheim, K.
(2004). In their own words: Well-being at midlife
among high school-educated and college-educated
adults. In O. G. Brim, C. D. Ryff, & R. C. Kessler
(Eds.), How healthy are we? A national study of wellbeing at midlife (pp. 273319). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
Mayne, T. (2001). Emotions and health. In T. J.
Mayne & G. A. Bonanno (Eds.), Emotions: Current
issues and future directions (pp. 361397). New York:
Guilford Press.
Miyamoto, Y., Uchida, U., & Ellsworth, P. C. (in
press). Culture and mixed emotions: Co-occurrence
of positive and negative emotions in Japan and the
US. Emotion.
Morling, B., Kitayama, S., & Miyamoto, Y. (2002).
Cultural practices emphasize influence in the US
and adjustment in Japan. Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin, 28, 311323.
Mroczek, D. K., & Kolarz, C. M. (1998). The effect of
age on positive and negative affect: A developmental
perspective on happiness. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 75, 13331349.
Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A.
(2001). Culture and systems of thought: Holistic
versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108,
291310.
Peng, K., & Nisbett, R. E. (1999). Culture, dialectics,
and reasoning about contradiction. American Psychologist, 54, 741754.
Pennebaker, J. W. (1993). Putting stress into words:
Health, linguistic, and therapeutic implications.
Behavioral Research and Therapy, 31, 539548.
Perunovic, W. Q. E., Heller, D., & Rafaeli, E. (2007).
Within-person changes in the structure of emotion:
The role of cultural identification and language.
Psychological Science, 18, 607613.
Pressman, S., & Cohen, S. (2005). Does positive affect
influence health? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 925
971.
Priester, J. R., & Petty, R. E. (1996). The gradual
threshold model of ambivalence: Relating the
positive and negative bases of attitudes to subjective
ambivalence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 431449.
Robinson, M. D., & Clore, G. L. (2002). Belief and
feeling: Evidence for an accessibility model of
emotional self-report. Psychological Bulletin, 128,
934960.
Ryff, C., Love, G., Urry, H., Muller, D., Rosenkranz,
M., Friedman, E., et al. (2006). Psychological wellbeing and ill-being: Do they have distinct or
mirrored biological correlates? Psychotherapy and
Psychosomatics, 75, 8595.
Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. (1998). The contours of
positive human health. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 128.
Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. (2003). Ironies of the human
condition: Well-being and health on the way to
mortality. In L. G. Aspinwall & U. M. Staudinger
(Eds.), A psychology of human strengths: Fundamental
questions and future directions for a positive psychology
(pp. 271287). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Sastry, J., & Ross, C. (1998). Asian ethnicity and the
sense of personal control. Social Psychology Quarterly,
61, 101120.
Schimmack, U. (2001). Pleasure, displeasure, and
mixed feelings: Are semantic opposites mutually
exclusive? Cognition and Emotion, 15, 8197.
Schimmack, U. (2009). Culture, gender, and the bipolarity of momentary affect: A critical re-examination.
Cognition and Emotion, 23, 599604.
Schimmack, U., Oishi, S., & Diener, E. (2002).
Cultural influences on the relation between pleasant
emotions and unpleasant emotions: Asian dialectic
philosophies or individualismcollectivism? Cognition and Emotion, 16, 705719.
Schimmack, U., Radhakrishnan, P., Oishi, S., Dzokoto, V., & Ahadi, S. (2002). Culture, personality,
and subjective well-being: Integrating process models of life satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 82, 582593.
Scollon, C., Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R.
(2005). An experience sampling and cross-cultural
investigation of the relation between pleasant and
unpleasant affect. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 2752.
Siegel, M., Bradley, E. H., & Kasl, S. (2003). Self-rated
life expectancy as a predictor of mortality: Evidence
from the HRS and AHEAD surveys. Gerontology,
49, 265271.
Spencer-Rodgers, J., Boucher, H., Mori, S., Peng, K.,
& Wang, L. (2009). The dialectical self-concept:
Contradiction, change, and holism in East Asian
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
17
MIYAMOTO AND RYFF
cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
35, 2944.
Spencer-Rodgers, J., Peng, K., Wang, L., & Hou, Y.
(2004). Dialectical self-esteem and EastWest differences in psychological well-being. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 14161432.
Spiegel, D., Bloom, J. R., Kraemer, H. C., & Gottheil,
E. (1989). Effect of psychosocial treatment on
survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Lancet, 2, 888891.
Suh, E., Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Triandis, H. (1998).
The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments
across cultures: Emotions versus norms. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 482493.
Tsai, J. L., Knutson, B., & Fung, H. H. (2006).
Cultural variation in affect valuation. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 288307.
Uchida, Y., Norasakkunkit, V., & Kitayama, S. (2004).
Cultural constructions of happiness: Theory and
18
COGNITION AND EMOTION, 0000, 00 (00)
empirical evidence. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5,
223239.
Watson, D., Clark, L., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive
and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063
1070.
Weisz, J., Rothbaum, F., & Blackburn, T. C. (1984).
Standing out and standing in: The psychology of
control in America and Japan. American Psychologist,
39, 955969.
Yik, M. (2007). Culture, gender, and the bipolarity of
momentary affect. Cognition and Emotion, 21, 664
680.
Zautra, A., Reich, J., Davis, M., Potter, P., & Nicolson,
N. (2000). The role of stressful events in the
relationship between positive and negative affects:
Evidence from field and experimental studies.
Journal of Personality, 68, 927951.